There are two main reasons why I’m relying on connections and referrals to land my next job:
With one notable exception*, every job I’ve ever had came via a connection or referral, and
Applying “cold” means filling out asinine applications like the one pictured above — and hoping to get noticed among the hundreds of others filling out the same form.
At the very least, they could’ve posed the question in a cool way…
🚨 Content warning: Samuel L. Mother-effing Jackson!
The “years of experience” field for English is probably the result of the application form software or the person who set up the form. They probably wanted a fluent English speaker and entered “English” into the “required skills” section. The software simply asks for years of experience for any required skill.
It should be noted that if your primary language is English, filling out the “years of experience” field for it gives away your age.
✳️ That exception? Auth0, which was later acquired by Okta. I saw the job on LinkedIn and filled out the application form.
I was sorting out some of the stuff in my office near the desk when I saw the scene pictured above and thought to myself, “this would tell an interesting story.”
Going counterclockwise from near the top left, the items are:
1000 won note from South Korea from my stash of travel currency that I was organizing
Adafruit PyGamer handheld game console, which is also programmable in CircuitPython, as well as Arduino’s C-like language and the languages supported by MakeCode Arcade.
The keyboard and Storyteller Tactics were prizes I won in the “Tracy’s Treasure Chest” raffle at last Friday’s Spring Tech Fest, a.k.a. Tracy Ingram’s 50th birthday party.
The raffle was unusual in that a winning ticket wasn’t for a specific prize. Instead, a winning ticket would allow you to enter a prize room containing over a hundred items, where you could choose what you won. You could buy multiple tickets, and you could win multiple times.
Proceeds from the raffle are going to girls’ STEM education in local high schools, so Anitra and I bought ten tickets and won three times (she got a Kemove K68 keyboard). I think we did all right!
Software may be eating the world, but software needs hardware to run! In this talk, I’ll talk about the value of knowing how hardware works, as well as how to get started on building your hardware skills, from basic soldering, to how chips work, to playing around with “Internet of Things” devices like Arduinos and Raspberry Pis. Find out more and register here.
ℹ️ TL;DR: While wandering around the streets of Austin, Texas, I unknowingly stumbled into Twitch/OnlyFans streamer PeachJars’ “Free Advice 4 Charity” table, and hilarity ensued. Scroll down to see the video!
“What do you mean?” I asked, because I wasn’t sure what he was referring to.
“At the start of your talk, you mentioned that you were recently laid off. It’s brutal out there right now, but you wouldn’t know it from the way you gave your talk. You look like you were having fun.”
Me, at the start of my talk at Civo Navigate North America 2024. Photo by Jay Boisseau. Tap to view at full size.
“Maybe I’m wired that way,” I replied. “But it’s also that this isn’t my first layoff. I find that things go better if you have a firm belief that you can make things better.”
“In fact,” I added, “because this isn’t my first rodeo (hey, we were in Texas; I’m supposed to use that metaphor!), I know that inside the rough times, there are a lot of surprising good times baked in.”
Thursday morning
This was the day after the conference. It was morning, and my flight wouldn’t depart until 6:15 p.m. I had a couple of choices:
Option 1: Hunker down in the hotel lobby and continue the job search. After all, it is a brutal job market at the moment, even for people with my experience.
The Moxy’s lobby isn’t so much a hotel lobby as it is a pretty nice hangout space with good free wifi and coffee, lots of tables and power outlets, good music, a bar, and a nice taco restaurant. I could easily get a lot of job search work done there, which some might say would be the smart thing to do with that time.
Mural near my hotel.
Option 2: Leave my bags at the hotel, break a twenty-dollar bill into small change, strap on the accordion, take in the sights, sounds, and people of Austin, and make some people’s days a little odder (and hopefully better).
You’ve probably already guessed what I did.
I met Ryan the busker on Guadalupe Street. Tap to view at full size.
I met Ryan the busker at Guadalupe and 23rd and put a fiver in his bucket. In exchange, he invited me to play Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ with him, and as a Florida musician, I am legally required to be able to play Tom Petty. We had fun.
A number of people at the nearby bus stop shot video of us, so you might see it floating around the internet.
Free advice for charity
PeachJars’ “Free Advice” table. Tap to view at full size.
The breakout moment of my walk was when I passed by a table that was promoting free advice for charity, where the charity was Alveus, an exotic animal sanctuary that provides permanent homes to non-releasable exotic animals.
A cheerful young woman sat at the table, flanked by another holding a sign, and a third running what looked like a streaming camera rig. I confirmed the “streaming” part when I saw that the table had a sign that showed the seated woman’s Twitch URL.
PeachJars, I thought. Cute name. I’ll have to look up that channel later.
Rather than tell you what happened next, let me just show you the segment of her stream where I appeared. And be sure to read the stream of comments in the right column!
Quite possibly the first (and maybe last) time that I have been called a GIGACHAD.
😘 My thanks to PeachJars and company for being so kind!
Lunch with new friends
Tap to view the original post on LinkedIn.
I had posted earlier on LinkedIn that I was in Austin for the day and asked if anyone wanted to do lunch. Luckily, Connor Brown, Noah Birrer, and Jacob Colvin answered the call, and we got together at Iron Works Barbecue, where Noah covered my lunch and I enjoyed the conversation so much that I forgot to take a picture.
Find the good times in the bad
I could’ve stayed in the hotel and worked on my job search, and I might be a few hours ahead today. But because I chose to step out onto the streets of Austin — a city that I don’t see every day — I had experiences I wouldn’t have otherwise had, met people I wouldn’t have otherwise met, and my headspace is even readier for the hustle.
I now have a better answer for the person who asked me how I stay optimistic while being laid off. It’s because I set out to find the good times in the bad. If you’re laid off, see if you can do the same.
I’ll close with this quote from Sigmund Freud that I’ve been hearing repeated lately:
“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”
A hackathon is a competitive event where people with a technology bent — typically developers, designers, and other tech enthusiasts — form teams that work to build a software prototype (which can also include some hardware) that solves a problem or accomplishes a goal within a limited amount of time (typically ranging from a few hours to a couple of days).
Think of it as a pressure cooker of skill and creativity, where teams of participants brainstorm, code, design, test, and refine their creations in a race against the clock — and other teams! Collaboration and innovation are key, as participants huddle around laptops, sketch pads, and whiteboards, exchanging ideas, troubleshooting, and iterating rapidly to refine their solutions. Mentors and industry experts are often available to provide guidance and feedback, adding another layer of learning and networking to the experience. At the end of the event, teams present their projects to a panel of judges or the entire audience, showcasing their ingenuity, technical prowess, and presentation and problem-solving skills.
To use the words of the organizers, Tampa Devs, “It’s one part party, one part work-your-butt-off overnight battle against the clock and the competition.”
What will participants be building at BayHacks 2024?
This hackathon doesn’t have a theme, so participants can build any kind of software/hardware project they want.
However, they don’t have a lot of time to build. Building time starts at 12 noon on Saturday and stops at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, followed by project presentations, judging, and the awarding of prizes.
Do I have to participate, or can I just be a spectator?
Space is limited, so there isn’t room for spectators. If you attend, you must participate in a project!
Opening ceremonies, explanation of format, and other announcements
11:00 a.m.
Team formation
11:30 a.m.
Pitching proposals
12:00 p.m.
The work begins!
5:00 p.m.
You don’t have to stop, but you have to exit the venue.
Sunday, February 25th
Time
What”s happening
10:00 a.m.
Participant check-in
10:30 a.m.
The work continues!
2:00 p.m.
Teams present their projects
3:00 p.m.
Judging and the awarding of prizes
5:00 p.m.
End of the event
Did you mention prizes?
Yes, there are prizes. Cash prizes, in fact…
Place
Cash prize amount
1st
$750
2nd
$500
3rd
$250
How are projects judged?
They’ll be judged on the following criteria:
Quality and innovative nature of the idea / demo
Utility of the idea / demo
UI / UX design
Who are the judges?
They’re prominent members of the Tampa Bay tech community held in high esteem. You may recognize one of them:
That’s right, I’m a judge. So impress me!
How do you register for BayHacks 2024?
Register for BayHacks 2024 at the BayHacks 2024 Eventbrite page. It costs $10 to register, but that $10 helps cover the costs of running the hackathon and also gets you the official T-shirt, swag bag, andSpa a single entry into the pre-event raffle for a pair of Tampa Bay Lightning tickets.
If you like sci-fi and are looking for inspiration as you make your way through the process of finding your next gig after being laid off, I recommend the audiobook version of The Martian, the book by Andy Weir that became the film of the same name starring Matt Damon.
While the film gave us STEM majors a memorable line that we’ll quote forever — “I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this” — the book tells a deeper story of perseverance, problem-solving, and perspicacity that is nothing short of inspiring.
I’m not exaggerating about the “inspiring” bit either. Whenever I’m working on a tough problem and I can’t figure out a solution, I put the audiobook version of The Martian on and put it on in the background. Listening to how stranded Mars astronaut Mark Watney assess the situation he’s in and uses his knowledge and the materials on hand to survive for 531 sols (those are Martian days, the equivalent of 546 days on Earth) has somehow helped me to:
Relearn enough JavaScript and learn enough React to build a little web application that assembled a report for a telecom cost-optimization review, which a major tech vendor sold as part of their suite of services.
Build the Python script that generates the weekly list of Tampa Bay tech, entrepreneur, and nerd events. It’s no simple assignment, as it must counter Meetup.com’s anti-scraping countermeasures.
Write Augmented Reality in Android with Google’s Face API, my first Android programming article for RayWenderlich.com (now Kodeco), despite not ever having built an Android app or used Google’s API for detecting and tracking facial features.
Pass my “audition” for Auth0 (now owned by Okta), where I had to write an application using tech I’d never used before (Auth0 and Spring Boot) and an article about that application.
If you find yourself feeling stuck, read The Martian or give the audiobook version a listen! As a treat, here’s the audiobook version, as uploaded to YouTube by a soul who doesn’t fear the copyright cops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYGuGzmVleI
Peter Wheeler’s take on nondisparagement clauses
I know Peter Wheeler from my time at Auth0/Okta, where we met through initiatives where Auth0 would help out nonprofit organizations. He’s a sweet, solid guy, and he’s so willing to help out that if I had to assemble a crack team of a dozen people to save the world, he’d be one of the first people I’d call.
Peter gave me the idea to include something nice for the team that would have to deal with the company laptop when I shipped it back to them. That team also experienced, and they probably were feeling disheartened by the layoffs and having to process the laid-off people’s gear. I tell the whole story in an earlier post, The Box Came Back the Very Next Day.
The reality is – if you’ve got the time and energy to be talking about anything, it should be about what’s next and who you are. Not dramatically rehashing the past. Even in venting.
And with layoffs, who cares? There are thousands of colloquialisms and parables to answer any question that might be posed about your time and your relationship with the organization. “One door closes, another opens.” “Gave me time to pursue….” “Helped me see…”
My favorite, ever, and that I’ve adopted for myself when leaving roles and organizations – that came from someone I was hiring who was pursuing a title and duties drop –
“I exhausted the ways I could positively contribute”
That goes into so much, so easily, without saying anything. Lack of culture alignment. Role no longer what you signed up for. Team issues.
Feel compelled to be honest? “At this point in my career I’m looking for an organization and role that ‘positive statements’…” > “well I know what I don’t want to go through again”
Same thing. Different vibe you personally put off. And different risk in this case.
“Would you work there again?” Is a very different question than “Would you go back to working there?”
One is quantum unrestricted :) Rambling. Bye
He also linked to this classic from the great jazz keyboardist Fats Waller that summarizes the definitive answer to the non-disparagement clause question: You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My Business…
Advice from the global financial crisis of 2008 (and Douglas Rushkoff)
Way back in October 2008 (this blog goes back to August 2006), I was laid off for the first time. I made the announcement in a post called This Gun’s for Hire…
Whatever the case, the best thing you can do to protect yourself and your interests is to make friends. The more we are willing to do for each other on our own terms and for compensation that doesn’t necessarily involve the until-recently-almighty dollar, the less vulnerable we are to the movements of markets that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with us.
If you’re sourcing your garlic from your neighbor over the hill instead of the Big Ag conglomerate over the ocean, then shifts in the exchange rate won’t matter much. If you’re using a local currency to pay your mechanic to adjust your brakes, or your chiropractor to adjust your back, then a global liquidity crisis won’t affect your ability to pay for either. If you move to a place because you’re looking for smart people instead of a smart real estate investment, you’re less likely to be suckered by high costs of a “hot” city or neighborhood, and more likely to find the kinds of people willing to serve as a social network, if for no other reason than they’re less busy servicing their mortgages.
I’ve internalized Rushkoff’s idea, which is why I do a lot of community-building stuff wherever I call home, whether it was in Toronto (this blog is effectively a record of all that work) or in my home for the last ten years, Tampa.
When you read Rushkoff’s fanciful idea of printing your own “local currency,” replace that phrase with “social currency.”
While you may want to work on your technical skills to land your next gig, you may also want to work on things like building a network of friends and acquaintances and building goodwill in tech circles. I’ve found that these are just as valuable as any algorithm, data structure, programming language, or framework that I’ve learned.
